Rose Breasted Cockatoo

Spring is in the air, and before too long, kids will be out of school and summer will be in full swing. Making sure your bird has a comfortable and safe summer season isn’t hard if you keep a few things in mind.

Since most parrots are from warm, tropical regions, warmer temperatures don’t usually bother them. They can handle humidity and temperatures that most of us would find stifling, so don’t feel you have to crank up the A.C. on your bird’s behalf. If you use ceiling fans, and your bird can fly, take care not to have them on when the bird is out. When using other fans, locate them in an area where your bird can’t explore them and their temptingly chewable cords.

When the weather’s nice, you may decide to take your parrot outside more often. Make sure his wings are clipped, or better yet, train him to use a secure harness and leash system. When using an outdoor perch that’s not in an enclosed aviary, stay close by. Hawks have been known to swoop down upon parrots, even in urban areas. Locate the perch (or aviary) in partial shade so your bird doesn’t have to sit in direct sunlight if he doesn’t want to. Provide a supply of clean, cool water for him at all times and watch for signs that he’s ready to go back inside. If you see him panting, he’s probably too hot.

Some owners notice their parrots appreciate a couple of extra baths during warmer months. This may be a good time to experiment with different bath/shower methods to provide a bit of variety in your bird’s routine. And keep a close eye on his drinking supply if you don’t use a water bottle. A parrot’s more likely to take a cooling-off plunge in his water bowl if he’s warm, so he could end up with an undrinkable mess more often.

Speaking of bowls, you may need to battle pesky little fruit flies in your bird’s food bowl. To avoid attracting them, don’t leave fresh food in the cage longer than it takes for your bird to eat it and pick up pieces that get tossed. Keep kitchen waste cans covered and put fruits and vegetables in the fridge instead of out on counters. Cold produce tastes better this time of year anyway.

Congo African Grey Parrot

You should be able to offer more than just the standard bananas, apples and grapes now. Summer means you may have access to a wider variety of fresh foods. Even if you don’t have a garden, farmer’s markets, generous gardening neighbors and grocery stores are usually flush with produce. Here in Northwest Florida, you can’t drive anywhere without seeing someone selling greens, melons, tomatoes and other garden fare out of the back of a truck. Melons are especially good these days, but also try papaya, fresh pineapple, mango and kiwi. Gather up bunches of greens: collards, mustard and turnip. These low-cost, high-nutrition vegetables will greatly enhance your bird’s diet. Be sure to rinse all produce well before serving.

Garden goodies are a sure sign of summer, and so are hoards of kids running around the neighborhood. Now that school’s out, the kids are going to be around a lot more, so parrots that are used to quiet days may be in for a jolt until they get used to the new daily routine. Along with kids coming and going comes doors opening and closing. If your parrot is flighted and out of his cage, an open door is a possible disaster. Don’t be one of those people posting “lost parrot” signs around town. Either confine the bird during high kid-traffic hours or be extremely watchful and teach the kids to carefully close doors behind them. If your house is one of the neighborhood hangouts, there might be a lot more noise and activity than your parrot wants. Realize that not all parrots appreciate attention from people they don’t know well, so be sure to supervise any interaction between your bird and visiting children. It might be a good idea to establish a “look but don’t touch” policy to avoid any trouble.

And finally, what would summer be without a family vacation? What to do with the bird is something you may struggle with. Take him with, board him somewhere, or have someone come in? What’s right for your situation depends on a lot of things. Next week, I’ll cover some of those issues.

Rose Breasted Cockatoo

If you’re a typical person, you have to leave your home now and then, maybe for longer than a day. If you’re a typical parrot person, you worry about leaving your parrot overnight. Going away shouldn’t fill you with dread. Most parrots can take this change of routine in stride and not have a permanent melt down if you plan carefully.

When it comes to traveling, you have three options, some of which have layers of sub-options. Option 1: Leave the bird and have someone come to your home. Sub-options: The person is a professional, or the person is just someone that you know and trust. Sub-sub options: The person comes in once or twice a day, or the person stays at your home. Option 2: You board the bird. Sub-option: He stays with a professional–a vet, pet store or kennel, or he stays with someone that’s not in the bird boarding business. Option 3: You take the bird with you.

Let’s focus on him staying home. Later we’ll cover going to “camp” or coming with you.
Leaving your bird in his own environment and having a caretaker come over is probably the best idea if you plan to be gone for just a few days. You can do it for longer if you need to, but you increase the chance that your bird will get stressed and be a bit “off” when you get home. Unless he’s used to staying at different places, the familiarity of his environment is going to be more comforting. Often when it’s quiet, a parrot will just do a lot of napping. You can put the television, radio and lights on timers to help break up the monotony. The caretaker can change toys around each day to help keep things interesting. If you work away from home, your bird is already used to being alone at least part of the time, so this isn’t that much of a stretch for him to put up with.

If you’ve got a really needy bird, or you can’t stand the thought of him being lonely, consider having someone come in to do more than just fill the food and water bowls. Have the person hang out a while and get the bird out if they can. Maybe they can take their own mini-vacation and stay all night. This option is usually easiest if you’ve got family or close friends whom you don’t mind being up-close and personal with your home and all your stuff. The bird will appreciate someone around that’s not you if he knows this person, so have a “getting to know you” session or two before you leave if he’s not met them before.

We don’t know anyone crazy enough to want to stay at our place while we’re gone and we have waaaaay too many animals to even think about boarding them. We have good neighbors, but our pet situation is intense enough that our option is a no-brainer: We use a professional pet sitter who comes to our house once a day. This pet sitting service has been in business for years. They’re bonded and insured and take what they do very seriously. The service has always been reliable, and the animals do just fine.

Because we are a multi-pet home, including multiple parrots, we don’t have to worry so much about our pets getting too lonely if someone’s coming in just once a day. They may do a lot more sleeping than usual, but I’ve never had any “oh-thank-god-you’re-back-I-was-going-crazy-I-hate-you-for-leaving-me-get-away-no-please-come-back-don’t-you-dare-ever-leave-again” issues upon returning home. Food and water containers are always full, the cages are clean, and our mail is brought in as well. The staff knows the animals, and the animals know them. Hiring a professional can give you peace of mind, but it may not be cheap. On the other hand, tossing a few bucks to the teenager next door may leave you too anxious. Think of this as hiring a baby sitter and use the same care in interviewing and choosing this person. People who take their role as a pet sitter seriously are worth looking for, whether they’re professional or not.

Written By Kim Bear
Parrot Behavior Specialist

Chet’s Thoughts:
Heck, when we left our Cockatoo with the inlaws while we took a vacation, we gave them a copy of my own parrot training cousre, and when we got back they’d trained the bird a few new tricks. It made the babysitting more fun for them, and the bird got some mental stimulation in there too.

Sulfur Crested Cockatoo

If you’ve done any reading about pet parrots, you’ve likely run across warnings about cockatoos, most likely warning you away from getting one of these birds. The truth is cockatoos probably are some of the most difficult parrots to have as pets. They’re prone to behaviors that don’t lend themselves well to life in a human household, such as screaming, biting and tearing stuff up. On the other hand, this is true as well: Cockatoos can be fine pets when they are raised and cared for properly. While the same can be said about any parrot, it’s especially true about a cockatoo, because when he isn’t given what he needs, the chances of him becoming a well-mannered, easy-going member of the family are not good. It’s more likely the family ends up getting rid of the cockatoo because they can’t deal with the frustrating situations that keep popping up as often as the bird raises his crest.

What should a potential cockatoo owner be concerned about? Getting a hand fed bird? Purchasing a baby as opposed to an older bird? Buying from a breeder? Buying from a pet store? Buying an unweaned baby? So, what difference does any of this stuff make?

In the long run, these aren’t the main issues to worry about. The majority of parrots are handfed (in the U.S., at least), so the odds are this isn’t even up for debate. Getting an older bird doesn’t mean you’re automatically dealing with someone’s unfixable mistakes. Breeder vs. pet store may not matter all that much because there are good birds and “bad” ? birds to be found from both sources. And lastly, buying an unweaned baby does not mean your cockatoo will bond with you more and be a better pet. It really shouldn’t even be considered by 95% of future cockatoo owners, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that for now.

What does matter in the long run is early socialization and training, and continued socialization and training. Put simply, what is done for the bird when he is young, and what is continued for him for the rest of his life. Mis-steps in either of these can result in an unhappy owner and an even unhappier cockatoo. It’s possible to correct for a poor upbringing. However, it may be more than most people are prepared to do. It’s also possible to do almost everything wrong once you get your bird home and still wind up with a nice cockatoo. Possible, but certainly not probable. They aren’t dogs. Their default mode isn’t “man’s best friend”

One of the biggest determinants of whether or not you have a good cockatoo experience lies, for the most part, in something that’s out of your hands. This means that you will want to put as much thought into where you get that cockatoo as you did when you decided to get a cockatoo in the first place. You’re trusting that the person raising your bird does the right things. You’re trusting that your bird will come to you with the experiences he needs to fit right into your home.

Goffin Cockatoo

What are those experiences? He should know the basic skills of “up” and “down” (very important for birds whose feet appear to be made of Velcro). He should be provided a variety of mental and physical activities for his ever-busy mind and body. He should enjoy a variety of foods. He should have limits imposed on him, and respond well when those limits are enforced. And finally, he should have been given a balance of attention and affection along with a sense of independence. These are the important aspects of proper cockatoo socialization and training that will help this wild animal adapt better to living in a captive environment.

Key cockatoo socialization and training terms are “boundaries” and “balance”, and also “constant” and “consistent”. As in, you have to be constant and consistent with the boundaries and balance that should already be set in place. If not, you risk a constant and consistent struggle as your cockatoo’s instincts take over and he pushes past his boundaries, unbalancing your household. These instincts, when expressed within reason, are what make him an engaging and interesting pet in the first place. After all, cockatoos should be lively and loving. But spoiled, bossy, needy cockatoos aren’t engaging. They’re exhausting. Avoid that exhaustion by making sure that before you choose your cockatoo, he’s getting the right start, and you’re able to keep it all going.

This article has been written by professional parrot behavior consultant Kim Bear who consults with the clients of Birdtricks.com

Rose Breasted Cockatoo

Cockatoos, the familiar, mostly white, crested group of parrots from Australia and Indonesia, are often one of the first parrots a family is drawn to when choosing a bird. However, you need only talk to a couple of parrot rescue organizations or look in the “for sale” ads to see that cockatoos aren’t for everyone. Not that they make bad pets. It’s more like they don’t make good pets unless the owners really know what they’re doing. I don’t have actual statistics on this, but my experience leads me to believe that cockatoos are one of the most commonly re-homed parrots, passed around from place to place because they got to be too much. That passing around could possibly have been prevented had the bird landed in the right place to begin with. But that’s not the bird’s fault.

Each month I talk to several people who are either thinking of selling their problem too, or they’ve just acquired someone else’s “mistake” and want to bring the bird around. It sure would be better if I talked to several people who were in the mulling-it-over stage and needed some help with their cockatoo purchase decision. I’m afraid that for many people, my suggestion would be “Don’t get one”. Not everyone realizes the huge potential down side of these downy-soft birds. But the large number of older cockatoos being placed up for adoption, the frantic pleas for help on parrot website message boards, and the discouraged clients I help tell another story. A cockatoo is an “extreme” parrot. So put some extreme thought into your decision before you bring one home. Don’t be ruled by your heart when you hold that adorable big-eyed baby as it wraps its foot around your fingers and offers you a charming smile. Use your head, and learn the reality of the pet cockatoo.

You could call cockatoos a study in contrast. Cute, cuddly and affectionate. Loud, demanding and belligerent. These are all words used to describe pet cockatoos. And they would all be accurate for the most part. With their large, dark, button eyes, baby-doll speaking voices and almost insatiable need for physical closeness, they are indeed one of the most lovable of all birds. But along with that sweet nature comes a tendency to be overly needy and possibly violently bossy. Not to mention, they like to take tear things up, rule over everyone and everything in sight, and make lots of noise. And when they are loud, they are very, very loud. There’s a website out there that features an “up close and personal” recording of a Moluccan cockatoo in full-blown tantrum mode, giving folks an idea of what they’d be facing on possibly a daily basis. Even the more diminutive Goffins and bare-eyed cockatoos pack a pretty hefty wallop in the scream-and-screech department. Anyone with a need for quiet, like apartment dwellers, probably should pass on a cockatoo for that reason alone.

Umbrella Cockatoo

It’s not that a cockatoo will inevitably become a problem pet, but the odds of it happening increase if the bird is brought into a home of unprepared people. Since it’s not likely one just appears on your doorstep or follows your children home from school, you’re going to acquire this bird because somehow you choose to. And hopefully it was after lots of careful consideration. If not, you may be playing catch-up on how not to end up with a pushy, overly-dependent parrot that you’ve accidentally spoiled rotten, and not in a good way. It’s important to address the specific concerns about raising a well-mannered cockatoo, so some prevention-oriented cockatoo care is coming up.

is article has been written by professional parrot behavior consultant Kim Bear who consults with the clients of Birdtricks.com